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Topic: What's New At My House! (Read 9032 times)

Brian, I don't doubt your word for a minute about the breeding of the big tom, but I am that kind of person that always requires back up for information, so I am studying the bronze turkey, went to Wikiepedia and the picture of the bronze turkey show identical to what my tom looks like, with the barring on the flight feathers. I need to study more.......

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

The coloring of the fanned tail is also a give away as it has an extral lighter brown strip across it. But if his hatchlings all dressed out at about 20 lbs then he is pure Bronze. A Standard Bronze tom can weigh in in the mid 30's pound wise, while a Broad Breasted Bronze tom can weigh in as much as 50 lbs if allowed to grow to full maturity. Again most medium sized turkeys weigh in the mid 20's. Your tom is not that much larger than the Blue Slates which are medium sized turkeys so I doubt he is a purebred.

The Bronze, as was the Broad Breasted Bronze, was a hybrid that developed much the same way as Cornish crosses do, grow so fast their legs can develop fast enough to hold up their bodies. You can get some large birds with the righ genetic hybrid.

As for me....I got my Bourbon Reds on Friday afternoon, April 3, they were all alive but spent 3 1/2 days in transit as they were shipped the morning of 3/31. By this morning, Monday the 6th, I am down to 2. I could not get thos birds to drink or eat. I spent hours holding their beaks in the water then the mash in an effort to get the to eat but out of the 15 ordered only 2 decided to eat and live, the rest starved to death. I think it was due to the long period without any food that did them in.I call the Hatchery and told them how many of the turkeys died and how long the delivery time was. They agreed to ship me another batch of 15 turkeys on the 14th. Hopefully I'll get them much sooner than last time.

Spent the day doing a thorough inspection of both hives and split the Russian hive into a 5 frame nuc. So I now have 3 hives. I also set up my traditional bait hive (double decker nuc) and the 2 8 frame mediums for the 2 packages I will be recieving in the next few weeks.

Also spent more time explaining chicken coop framing and construction to my 2 man work crew. They've never done this kind of thing so are very excited about seeing the end result. But I do have to spend a good deal of time explaining and showing them what to do. Today I showed them how to lay out a wall. Tomorrow we get to build the 2 walls we laid out. Then I need to make another run to the lumbar yard as I shorted myself about a dozen studs.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Brian, you are making me cry....(kidding). I thought my bronze was a purebred turkey, now I can really see that he must be a cross with something. I looked as hard as I could at every image I could find of the bronze turkey. It appears that what I see mostly is that the extra stripe that you see on my bird's tail (I think you mean the one light stripe at the base of the fan) is not present or is only slightly present in pictures of the bronze that I see. I rest my case, smiling. I wish he was a purebred, I would get bigger food for the table. I may invest in a purebred bronze hen and sell my hen crosses. Our family is so big that a 14 pound bird just really doesn't cut it. Besides, 7 months to grow a 14 pound bird, think we were throwing money out the window.

Oh what a lot of work you have performed with your poults to try to get them to eat, that breaks my heart; and I am sorry to hear of this. I know what work goes into readying for the babies, the time, the love, effort, and then to try to make them eat, drink, and they just look at you like you are that alien from outer space, them thinking, why should I have sustanance. Oh dear, dear, dear....

What the dickens is with your hatchery that you are getting your birds from. Aren't they located in Washington state, pretty close to you? I would think that it would be an overnight service, not a couple of days. You have had terrible happenings with your young birds coming to you in bad shape and I am not impressed.

I was going to be putting an order in to that hatchery (and about 12 other people I have enlisted to help to cover costs). I have quite a substantial order going on. I had intended the hatchery to ship the days olds to the Sumas border crossing, along with the certificate of health and paperwork to come over the border. But if you have had such terrible issues with their birds, I am thinking differently. I am pretty sure that this hatchery is the same one that you used.

There is a Canadian hatchery that will have day olds (sexed, if you chose) available in mid June, the same time as the American hatchery. I may decide to go with them instead.

Brian, racking my brains to remember who your two-man crew was. I re-read your posts here and still can't figure it out. I know it isn't your Son that lives in the little cabin, smiling (I know that can be a sore point, we had someone like that around here once, couldn't do a single ding dang thing, smiling). I think it may be someone that you have employed, but I just can't remember, elaborate please.

Putting up walls, sounds like such a simple thing, it is not. I watched my Husband build that horse barn. He built the walls on the ground laying down and then pushed them up, well, shiver me timbers, that scared the crap right out of me. He wanted me to hold the wall up with a 2X4, was he out of his mind? Freak!!!! Well, the walls went up....

I can't wait to hear of what your chicken barn looks like. I picture that it will be a beautiful piece of work. I am jsut hoping that one day you will be able to figure out how to use your camera, smiling and hint, hint.....

I am so proud of that light brahma rooster by the way, he is gonna be one magnificent bird. Even Ken told me he is beginning to like him (thought he looked like a bleep before), so that makes me feel good. Now I just need a couple of brahma hens to go with him. Think I will put an ad on Craig's list for a couple of gals for him, smiling. I know that in a little while he will need some friendship, he is far too big for my little hens here, think he would crush them. Anyways, today our sun is shinin' again, as I know is yours there. Off to the fun in the sun. Have that wonderfully great and beautiful day, health wishes, Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

I was reading a blog where the guy has given up ordering turkeys as the loss/cost ratio is too high. He now raises his own from eggs and is having a much higher success rate, Brian he might also be a good source for you to get your birds, it was the blog link I posted earlier.

I was reading a blog where the guy has given up ordering turkeys as the loss/cost ratio is too high. He now raises his own from eggs and is having a much higher success rate, Brian he might also be a good source for you to get your birds, it was the blog link I posted earlier.

I've chosen a very specific breed of Turkey, Bourbon Reds, that are not nearly as common as Standard Bronze, Blue Slates, Black Spanish, Rio Grande, Eastern Wild, Broad Breasted Whites, or Midgets Whites. Even Nagasanetts are more common. They are more in line with had to find (rare) catagory of White Palms and Chocolates. The turkeys when grown are a magnificent Mahogany color with white flights and tails. Very Pretty. They are a Heritage classed turkey so will reporduce.

After this year, I plane to do all my own hatching of chickens and turkeys, which is why I want 15 of the things. I want enough to select a Tom and 3-4 good hens for breeding. I'll give some to my older brother, who keeps giving me different varieties of pigeons, so he can do the same and eat the rest.

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Brian, racking my brains to remember who your two-man crew was. I re-read your posts here and still can't figure it out. I know it isn't your Son that lives in the little cabin, smiling (I know that can be a sore point, we had someone like that around here once, couldn't do a single ding dang thing, smiling). I think it may be someone that you have employed, but I just can't remember, elaborate please.

I've hired to local lads who have only part time jobs and need more money. I pay them $10.00 per hour (state minimum wage is $8.76 per hour) along with lunch, refreshments, an occasional dozen fresh farm eggs, etc. They are hard workers but neither one has ever poured cement, framed a building, done siding or roofing, or even dug a ditch. One of the many chores I have for them is to did a short drainage ditch. They will also be helping me build the fence around my pasture. I've got to do over 500 feet of 6 foot goat proof fence. Talking $$$$ here.Of course the Chicken house isn't cheap either but I'm comming in on budget of under $2500.00 for materials. I figure the cost of the fencing materials will be about the same, then there's the cost of the labor.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

I was reading a blog where the guy has given up ordering turkeys as the loss/cost ratio is too high. He now raises his own from eggs and is having a much higher success rate, Brian he might also be a good source for you to get your birds, it was the blog link I posted earlier.

Old English, you did post the link, I did look at it, but never got to the part about the turkeys, I bookmarked it for later use, I should read up on it, as you said, smiling. Have that great and most wonderful day, health. Cindi

P.S. I have raised my own turkeys from eggs that the mother sat on. The mortality rate is terrible. Out of 14 poults, only 3 made it to be grown ups, they seem to do the dumbest things and I think they are on a suicide mission.

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Brian, OK, now I understand who is doing the work at your place. That is generous of you to pay the lads above minimum wage. We do that too when the older boys around here take that fancy to work, which they quite often do. Good. You are teaching these young men some very valuable life skills at the same time. These are skills that will help them out in their adult life, when they go forward to more building. That is very wonderful too, you may be paving their road to a bright future.

I looked at many sites for the Bourbon Red turkeys. I have heard of them many times. THey are a beautiful breed of turkey, one day I may chose to raise them myself, but for now, I must stick to my trio that I have here, no time yet for thinking of any changes, I never know when we may just have to pack up and move.

That is great that your Brother will be taking on some of your turkeys for breeding and raising. Is he as deeply entrenched into farming, as you are? Cool. Have that wonderful and most awesome of these days, great health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

My older brother and I get together once a year to swap comodities. Last year I took him rabbits and strawberry and raspberry plants. The year before I was a beehive. In turn I've gottom such things as Gold Laced Wyandottes, goats, pigeons (of course), and June berries.This year I'm taking him some turkeys (if enough live) and another hive of bees as he lost his to starvation in the "high" Okanagons.

On the other hand, with my younger brother it is all give and no return. I've given him rabbits, various edible plants, and today I sent hime home with 1 rooster and 4 laying hens. The most I get from him is an occasional bit of help or advice on building something but mostly he sets around a plays chin music. Very entertaining fellow.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Brian, OK, which one is the one that thinks he is a girl? I am rather curious, you know that, smiling...beautiful day in this great life, love our life, it is ours, health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Brian, OK, which one is the one that thinks he is a girl? I am rather curious, you know that, smiling...beautiful day in this great life, love our life, it is ours, health. Cindi

The gender confused brother is the one that doesn't come around anymore since I blessed the property and buildings to ward off evil spirits. I know this sounds like it should be posted in The Dark Side Of The Moon but it's true. I blessed the property and he/she got to feeling uncomfortable and moved away a month or so later.Haven't seen or talked to him/her since, although the wife has. My wife is much more liberal than I am. I refuse to call a person who'se been my brother for over 50 years by a girls name. The Courts will let you change your name to Pineapple Upsidedown Cake if you insist but that don't mean I have to call you that.

And to think my mother had an aunt who used to stand in the middle of her lawn, arm pointing skyward, motionless as a statue. She believed she was Lady Liberty. Her Geography was askew, she lived in Pennsylvania not New York.

Today went good, got three more walls up on the chicken house. I build 'em lying flat and the boys I hired to the heavy work by picking them up, carrying them, and standing them upright. I then get to run around with a single jack in one hand and beat the walls until all the corners match up, then they do the nailing with my pneumatic framing gun. Oh, how I love air tools.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Brian, thank you for the explanation, you have satisfied my curiosity -- interesting about the blessing on the farm, the power of the Melchezadec priesthood....

Good, your walls are going up, the biggest part of all. Beautiful day in this great life, love and live it, health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Well, we're still working on the chicken coop. It so slow going because I'm spending as much time explaining how to do something as we are building something. They get in a hurry and start before I finish and then we sometimes have to undo what they did so we can do it right. My wife is getting a little antsy about how slow things are going and I can't really blame her.I told one of the boys today who was text messaging every time I turned around, "If you were working for a contractor he would tell you to either keep the phone in your pocket and get to work or get the he!! of the job site."

Had to go down and buy some more lumber as I was running short of 2X4s. In the odd jobs around here, building a pad for the cement flow, digging a few ditches, etc, we've worn out 3 or the old shovels my Dad had around here that have been in the family almost as long as I have. So I cut the shovel handles down and made canes out of them. They are a little more solid that the store bought canes. So I walk into the Lumber yard and put my cane on the counter. The guy behind the counter says, "That looks like a shovel handle."I said, "It was, now it's my cane."He says, "Shovel handles are made of ash, which gives me a rash.""That's strange," I said, "they usually give me blisters."

I older brothe called and I've got 7 pigeons coming in the mail in the morning and, hopefully, I will also have my replacement Turkeys then too, although they may not be here until Thursday morning. So here I be, with red bourbon turkeys and bronze pigeons.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

The Turkeys came today, the Post Office called at 5 to 5 am and said they were in. My wife made me go get them then, so still mostly asleep I shuffled down to the Post Office and claimed my Bourbon Reds. 14 alive and 1 squished in the bottom. Not too bad, much better than last time and there's a few that look iffy. If 12 live I'll call it good. I brought them home and installed them in one of my pigeon carry cages atop the washing machine, much to my wife's disapproval. Since it was still the middle of the night (sic) I introduced them to food via a saucer of water and another of corn meal.

Buy the time I was able to transfer the Jersey Giant chicks to the older (2ns stage) chick brooder, clean and prepare the 1st stage brooder for the new turkeys I had lost another one, so I'm down to 13 but they all look like they're doing well. But I do have 15 counting the 2 that survived from the 1st shipment so I'll call it even.

My work crew didn't show up today so I guess they got bored and quit. It's irritating to take the extra time to teach somebody how to do something and then have them walk off the job. I found that they couldn't identify a problem or solve it, it was like their problem solving skills had been turned off. Are all the young people like that today?

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

My work crew didn't show up today so I guess they got bored and quit. It's irritating to take the extra time to teach somebody how to do something and then have them walk off the job. I found that they couldn't identify a problem or solve it, it was like their problem solving skills had been turned off. Are all the young people like that today?

Pretty much yes, Couple years ago when Boeing was hiring, a lot of the new folks coming in were right out of college and this was their first job. I remember several of them being upset at the idea of working overtime not only that but on a saturday no less. When I was their age there were not enough hours in the week for me to work. So we are either paying them too much or mom & Dad need to learn when to cut the purse strings.

Brian, first off. I didn't realize that Mcmurray Hatchery was in California, I know now. So good that your turkeys arrived safely and soundly, they are really quite a difficult bird to raise, I know I had 3 of about 12 that survived the second time, oh brother. The weirdest things happen to turkey poults. I sold Richard and the two turkey hens, it is weird aroiund my place without them. I'lll get purebreeds when we move.

Too bad about your work crew, I have no clue what the kids these days are up to, smiling. Have that wonderful and awesome day and life, health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Brian, first off. I didn't realize that Mcmurray Hatchery was in California, I know now. So good that your turkeys arrived safely and soundly, they are really quite a difficult bird to raise, I know I had 3 of about 12 that survived the second time, oh brother. The weirdest things happen to turkey poults. I sold Richard and the two turkey hens, it is weird aroiund my place without them. I'lll get purebreeds when we move.

Too bad about your work crew, I have no clue what the kids these days are up to, smiling. Have that wonderful and awesome day and life, health. Cindi

It's not, somewhere in the Mid-West. The turkeys were sent from Texas.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

I was reading in the Rochester Hatchery catalogue last night about preparing for the new baby chicks. They were indicating that it is a really good idea to mix the young newly-arrived turkeys with the chicks. The chicks are so smart about eating (that is what my impression is of what they were getting at), that they teach the turkeys to eat and drink. Did that make any sense to you?

I think I am going to order some other chicks from this hatchery, it is in Alberta, which is the next province over to me. I would like to have some Rhode Island reds, and they sell straight run for a pretty reasonable price. I would also like to get some Buff Brahmas, so I could order them too. I know of several people that are looking for Brahmas and they aren't to be found around here, so they would take an excess of chicks from me, RIR are also pretty hard to find too, figure that one. BEautiful day in the great life we all live, are lovin' and sharin', health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Yeah, you're right about the chicks being used to train the turkey poults to eat. I bought 6 more Black Austrolorps after my turkeys arrived and put them in together. The chicks started eating and the turkeys started copying the chicks. In the meantime I dropped a few more turkeys, down to 11 from the last batch of 15 but that is holding stable with the introduction of the chicks. I picked the Austrolorps because they are a large black bird and my wife won't be able to tell them from the Jersey Giants, and they are probably the best winter layers. Brahmas, Orpingtons, and Jersey Giants are also reported to be good winter layers but the Austrolorps are suppose to be the best of the heavy breeds.

In my new 10X10 room of my new chicken house that will house the laying cnickens I'm putting in 2 48X50 inch windows plus a skylight. I'm designing it to make the maximum use of daylight for egg laying, I'll it almost as bright inside as outside. Maybe I should whitewash the walls.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Brian, good, so it sounds like that was some really good information about the chicks teaching the poults to eat. I will always remember that, glad that I read it in the ordering catalogue, that has helped you and will help me possibly in the future. Bummer that you have lost some more. I have two Australorpe X hens (one is yours (7 months old) Australorpe X something or other, the other is an Australorpe X Rhode Island Red (one year old), and one purebred Australorpe one month old chick. They say that Australorpes will lay pretty much the entire year. Have a most wonderful day, health and life. Cindi

Oooh, what a great idea about the skylights and windows. Well, think about it, if you whitewash the inside of the house the reflection will certainly brighten things up a whole whack. Do it.

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Well they are almost done with the install of the new septic system. 18 large but worth it, I hope. They weren't suppose to start until May 3rd but showed up a week early--a different job fell through.

I'm still working on the chicken house. Gave up on the paid help after they didn't show up for 2 days. Now doing it with volunteer help, the best kind cost wise, but the worst if you have a time schedule. The chickens started laying eggs in it today and I haven't tore down the old one yet though I did take off the door as it got so bad it wouldn't even swing on the hinges.

I have boughten all the lumber and fencing for the pasture I plan on doing this summer--600 linear feet.

Then the green house got delivered on Monday along with the solar power system for the chicken coop.

So this summer I have the 1. chicken coop to finish, 2. the Pasture fence, 3. The solar power system to install, 4, the green house to build, and 5. the Honey Do List that my wife wants which is to relocate build new rabbit hutches. Sounds like enough to keep me busy.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!